Book 4, lines 349-388

[Previous: lines 312-348]

John the Evangelist is narrating some of Christ's miracles.

“Quid repetam, purum vivo cùm è fonte liquorem
in vinum convertit, opes miseratus amici?                     [350]
Forte olim aerei spectans de vertice montis,
cum sol emenso depressior iret Olympo,
ingentem vidit numerum affluxisse sequentum,
matres atque viros, quos per deserta locorum
duxerat oblitosque suî, oblitosque suorum.                    [355]
Substitit hic miseratus: eos iam tertia namque
muneris expertes Cereris lux acta videbat.
Hic neque erant fruges, vicina nec oppida, possent
unde dapes petere argento, victumque parare:
arboreos necdum fœtus decoxerat aestas.                       [360]
Vix tandem inventus puer est ex agmine tanto,
quinque, viae auxilium, qui secum liba ferebat,
atque duos, dederat quos hue pia mater eunti,
incluses myrto, et bene olenti gramine pisces.
Sed quid enim hœc adeô tam multis millibus autem?      [365]
Et iam diffisi socii mussare querentes;
quos bonus affatu Christus solatus amico,
in coetum vocat ac paucis ita deinde profatur:
‘Nemo hodie numero è tanto non lœtus abibit.’
Hinc supplex tali Genitorem voce precatur:                  [370]
‘Summe Parens, ope cujus alit terra omnia, quique
et sole et liquidis fœcundas imbribus agros;
si quondam Isacidum generi per inhospita eunti
divinas epulas cœlo es largitus ab alto;
semine si nullo; constant quaecunque creâsti,                [375]
et nihil omnino fuerant cœlum, œquora, tellus;
adsis, obscœnamque famem tot millibus arce.’
Hœc tantum: dehinc gramineo discumbere campo
imperat effusos cœtus, dapibusque parari:
inde in frusta secat lœto cerealia vultu                             [380]
liba minutatim, et populos partitur in omnes.
(Millia quinque hominum campis saturanda sedebant.)
Ecce (incredibile auditu, mirabile visu)
omnibus in manibus visae succrescere partes
exiguae, dapibusque epulati largiùs omnes;                      [385]
et frugum pariter, laticumque expleta cupido est.
Quin et relliquias, mensis superantia frusta,
vix cava congestas bis sex cepere canistra.”

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Do I need to repeat how he changed water
into wine, taking pity on a friend’s need?                              [350]
Another time, watching from a mountain’s peak
as the sun had crossed the sky and was sinking
he saw a large number of people below
wives and men who’d followed him through the desert
without thought for themselves or their families.                  [355]
He pitied them. They’d not eaten for three days;
this darkening place was not blessed by Ceres
and there were no nearby towns to buy bread.
Here nothing grew that could be readied to eat;
summer had not yet ripened fruit on the trees.                       [360]
At last one boy was found, in all that throng
provisioned with five loaves and something to drink,
plus two fish, given by his loving mother—
wrapped in myrtle leaves and seasoned with herbs.
But what could so many thousands do with these?                [365]
The disciples, muttering, had lost confidence,
but the good Christ offered solace to his friends
gathering them together and speaking these words:
‘None of these folk will leave without good cheer.’

Then he called upon his Maker in prayer:                               [370]
‘Supreme parent, who nourishes all the world,
sending heavy rains and sun to make fields fertile;
as you once fed the wandering children of Isaac
a divine banquet you sent down from heaven:
if the seed is nothing unless you quicken it,                            [375]
and the sky, oceans and earth naught without you—
help me drive obscene hunger from these thousands.’
That was all: he told the crowd to sit on the grass
and ready themselves for the coming feast.
With a joyful expression he broke the bread                            [380]
and distributed it among all people.
(five thousand were sitting, waiting to be fed!)
here (incredible to hear, wonderful to see)
all saw their portions grow in their hands
until there was enough for all to feed.                                     [385]
Their hunger and their thirst were satisfied.
And the pieces that remained filled more than
twice six hollow baskets, heaped up high.

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Line 357’s ‘this place was not blessed by Ceres’ is a fancy way of saying: nothing edible grew there (Ceres, as you of course knew already, was the Roman goddess of agriculture; ‘she is especially connected with bread, and food more generally’; Barbette Stanley Spaeth, The Roman goddess Ceres (University of Texas Press, 1996), 20].

This, obviously, is the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand. In fact there are two such ‘feeding the multitude’ miracles reported in the Gospels:

The first miracle, the “Feeding of the 5,000”, is reported by all four gospels (Matthew 14:13-21; Mark 6:31-44; Luke 9:12-17; John 6:1-14); the second miracle, the “Feeding of the 4,000”, with seven loaves of bread and fish, is reported by Matthew 15:32-39 and Mark 8:1-9, but not by Luke or John.

Here's John's version of the former, which Vida follows quite closely:

After these things Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. Then a great multitude followed Him, because they saw His signs which He performed on those who were diseased. And Jesus went up on the mountain, and there He sat with His disciples.

Now the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was near. Then Jesus lifted up His eyes, and seeing a great multitude coming toward Him, He said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?” But this He said to test him, for He Himself knew what He would do.

Philip answered Him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may have a little.”

One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to Him, “There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many?”

Then Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. And Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks He distributed them to the disciples, and the disciples to those sitting down; and likewise of the fish, as much as they wanted. So when they were filled, He said to His disciples, “Gather up the fragments that remain, so that nothing is lost.” Therefore they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten. [John 6:1-13]

Vida (lines 373-4) mentions the Old Testament parallel of God feeding the wandering Israelites with manna from heaven in Exodus, although Biblical scholars find a closer parallel with Elisha: ‘then a man came from Baal Shalisha, and brought the man of God’—Elisha, that is—‘bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley bread, and newly ripened grain in his knapsack. And he said, “Give it to the people, that they may eat.” But his servant said, “What? Shall I set this before one hundred men?” He said again, “Give it to the people, that they may eat; for thus says the Lord: They shall eat and have some left over.” So he set it before them; and they ate and had some left over, according to the word of the Lord.’ [2 Kings 4:42-44].

Indeed, according to Biblical scholar Roger David Aus (in his Feeding the Five Thousand: Studies in the Judaic Background of Mark 6:30-44 and John 6:1-15 [University Press of America, 2010]) the Gospel accounts of these two miracles has been deliberately pitched to invoke and surpass the Elisha story:

On the basis of a very long and impressive list of parallel motifs in haggadic sources to the miraculous feeding of the five thousand in its various Gospel versions, Aus convincingly demonstrates that this story is based to a great extent upon postbiblical Jewish traditions concerning Elisha's feeding of 100 men with twenty loaves of bread (2 Kings 4:42-44) and that the message is—inter alia—that, although Elisha was regarded by Jews as the greatest miracle-worker in history (pp. 26-40), “greater than Elisha is here” (with R. Pesch, Aus calls it an “Uberbietungswunder”).[I am quoting Pieter W. van der Horst's review of Aus's book, from Novum Testamentum 53 (2011), 405]

As you can see from its watermark, the image at the head of this post is from a contemporary US stained-glass company, stainedglassinc.com. This particular design Loves and Fishes can be made up in a number of sizes and shapes and ‘would make a good addition to a house of worship or a hospital chapel’: a 60x80 inch panel, for instance, might cost you in the region of $4075. If you're in the States and thinking of acquiring some stained glass I would certainly check them out.

[Next: lines 389-398]